MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2026 GLIBC DIGEST · OPEN-SOURCE SYSTEMS DAILY VOL. 1 · NO. 110
Late Edition · APRIL 20, 2026 · VOL. 1 · NO. 110
The glibc Digest
— A Daily Record of the GNU C Library —
elf Proposed

elf: THP-aware load segment alignment

This patch series enables THP-aware load segment alignment in glibc, reducing iTLB misses and improving performance with madvise THP.

This patch series implements THP-aware load segment alignment in glibc. Benchmarking a clang build of the Linux kernel on x86_64 with this patch in THP madvise mode shows a reduction in iTLB misses, similar to THP always mode. The latest version includes a new test case and minor formatting fixes.

Technical Tradeoffs

  • Requires changes to the ELF loader.
  • May increase memory usage due to alignment requirements.
  • Needs careful handling of different THP modes.
  • Potential compatibility issues with older kernels or systems.
Filed Under: elfTHPperformancealignmentiTLB